Easily Doc's worse coaching job in a long time.

[nickagneta]

Yeah, I'm a Doc Fanatic, everyone here knows that.

Well, I'm calling the man out as last night's embarrassing loss has to be placed squarely in the lap of one Glenn "Doc" Rivers. His coaching job last night bordered on amateurish. His lack of timeouts to stop the tidal flow of momentum in the Warriors direction, his inexcusible use of a ridiculous small ball lineup late, his overuse of Leon early on letting him play for like the first 16 minutes of the game, his way too long stretches of sitting Rondo in the second half, his not addressing the refs and Belinelli's flopping(if ever there was a game where a tech was needed to draw attention to poor officiating on flops, this was one), his play calling in the second half, everything he did was bad.

Bad to the point of unprofessional at times. He allowed this game to slip away. He allowed his players to become frustrated with the refs. He allowed that frustration to effect his players game. And then when it all started going bad, he inserted the most embarrassingly bad lineup he's had in all year with KG and Pierce playing the 4 and the 5.

I sure hope that Doc apologized to the troops after the game last night because, at least IMHO, he was the man who lost this game.

[cordobes]

The lineup was needed. In the pre-season I predicted that Doc would be forced to play Scalabrine and Pierce at the 4, that some losses would be produced and that him, and not who assembled a terrible bench, would be the one getting the blame. Prophetic, wasn't it?

[EJPLAYA]

I also have been a huge fan of Doc's even in the bad times, and I agree with this 100% Nick. All we needed to win this game last night was for Doc to call a time out when the lead slipped down to 4-5 late and have him get his YELL on. They needed to be insulted as a group for their horrible lackluster effort and fired up to get out there. KG wasn't even into it and without Perk out their either to get nasty the whole team just kind of didn't care. Doc could have put an end to that by personally challenging KG.

His rotation was one of the oddest I have seen in a long time. Powe should have been in there late. POB should have got some revenge run. Ray should have been gone to right off the start to get him in the offense. Lots of issues last night. I never thought I would say this about this team, but they had no Heart last night.

[TripleThreat]

I sure hope that Doc apologized to the troops after the game last night because, at least IMHO, he was the man who lost this game.

There is no way I can blame the loss on Doc. Does he deserve part of the blame, sure. But this was a team loss. Whether they admit the Lakers game was big to them or not it was an emotional loss and the Celtics only maintained enough intensity to make it through one half last night. If they were being beat inside at the end then I could see blaming it on the rotation but it was the jump shooting by Jackson, Baranelli and Watson that killed us.

His rotation was one of the oddest I have seen in a long time. Powe should have been in there late. POB should have got some revenge run. Ray should have been gone to right off the start to get him in the offense. Lots of issues last night. I never thought I would say this about this team, but they had no Heart last night.

That is what happens when you only have one legitimate center on your roster. That is exactly the reason why we need a backup center come January.

[Chief]

Trying to play small ball against a Don Nelson coached team is just dumb.

[guava_wrench]

Trying to play small ball against a Don Nelson coached team is just dumb.

Considering that GS killed us on jumpers, I don't see the problem with small ball. If we had Perk, I'm sure he would have been in the game, but we didn't have him.

The problem I saw was Ray fouled out, so we went small with TA instead of Ray, giving us 2 guys with no jumper, Rondo and TA. It's hard to play small ball when 2 guys need to penetrate, but both their defenders can cheat towards the lane for help defense.

We really can't say anything would have turned out better if a big guy was in the game instead of TA or House. They wouldn't have influenced the jump shooting that killed us.

[Chief]

A shot blocker helps a lot against drive and kicks. There is less of a need for the defense to collapse. Plus, it would have put S. Jackson on Garnett or Powe. He'd actually had to work on defense which might have hurt his offense.

[cordobes]

A shot blocker helps a lot against drive and kicks. There is less of a need for the defense to collapse. Plus, it would have put S. Jackson on Garnett or Powe. He'd actually had to work on defense which might have hurt his offense.

Are you still talking about POB? Look, one problem is that in actual NBA games, refs call defensive 3 seconds. This is not pre-season anymore. Also, why offer Biedrins a career night?

[Chief]

A shot blocker helps a lot against drive and kicks. There is less of a need for the defense to collapse. Plus, it would have put S. Jackson on Garnett or Powe. He'd actually had to work on defense which might have hurt his offense.

Are you still talking about POB? Look, one problem is that in actual NBA games, refs call defensive 3 seconds. This is not pre-season anymore. Also, why offer Biedrins a career night?

Actually, if you read close, I was talking about Doc benching Powe in the 4th quarter. It was a bad coaching move.

[BrickJames]

Would've been a GREAT night for Cassell, esp when Ray fouled out, but if we proceeded to lose after that, the firestorm would have been even greater.

I agree with the poster that said this was a TEAM loss.  Doc didn't lose the game.  The players allowed themselves to get frustrated enough by the horrible officiating that they allowed a far inferior team to win.

This is a good loss - a sense of entitlement gets you nowhere (see Pistons, Detroit).

"You play to win the game"

[cordobes]

A shot blocker helps a lot against drive and kicks. There is less of a need for the defense to collapse. Plus, it would have put S. Jackson on Garnett or Powe. He'd actually had to work on defense which might have hurt his offense.

Are you still talking about POB? Look, one problem is that in actual NBA games, refs call defensive 3 seconds. This is not pre-season anymore. Also, why offer Biedrins a career night?

Actually, if you read close, I was talking about Doc benching Powe in the 4th quarter. It was a bad coaching move.

Since when is Powe a shot-blocker? And Powe wasn't getting the job done.

[Chief]

He blocked 2 last night an is great at taking charges.

Why was he not getting the job done? He played 25 minutes an had 12 pts, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

[Edgar]

numbers never say the whole story.

BTW I think doc was absolutely outcoach yesterday but hey..thats Don Specialty.

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

I think Doc's rotations were pretty horrid last night, but the players werent good last night and Tony Allen was just straight embarrassing...i cant stand his faces he makes after making a mistake, I cant stand his eratic driving leading to a block several times a game...I really dont want him on this team, trade him somehow someway.
and as for everyone else, their flaws were out in full force last night, And Rondo and KG just seem like different players on the road, which is obnoxious.
Ray was just flat out weird last night..

[wdleehi]

You can only put half the blame on Doc.




The other half has to go on Ainge for giving Doc a team with only two playable guys tall enough to be an NBA C (with one of them playing PF all the time) 


With out a true C that is playable (POB is not playable), Doc has to be more creative with his rotation, and that is just not one of his strengths as a coach.